A Massachusetts man accused of repeatedly kidnapping and raping a woman while keeping her inside his home for days will spend nearly 39 years behind bars.
Víctor Peña, of 42 years, was sentenced on July 26 for 10 charges of aggravated rape and one count of kidnapping stemming from an incident of 2019 in which he retained Olivia Ambrose, from 23 years, for three days inside his home in Boston.
Suffolk County Superior Court Judge Anthony M. Campo sentenced Peña on Monday from 29 to 39 years in prison, as reported by WCVB, a local CBS affiliate.
The local news website MassLive had reported that Peña kidnapped Ambrose after she left a bar on Saturday 19 January 2019. According to the story, Ambrose seemed to be very intoxicated at the time. Prosecutors said that after leaving the bar with a man, who later left with his friends, the victim was walking “alone in the snow.”
That, according to the authorities, was when Peña pounced.
According to reports, the victim she recalled waking up on a bare mattress in a dirty apartment, MassLive reported. She tried to take her things and leave, but according to prosecutors, Peña threatened her and took her phone. She then spent the next three days raping and sexually assaulting the woman, prosecutors say. He also forced her to drink alcohol, required her to read the Bible aloud in Spanish, and forced her to take photos with him.
Crying, disoriented and sometimes even praying… that’s how Víctor Peña was in his first appearance before a judge this morning.
He is accused of kidnapping #OliviaAmbrose for several days. She was found alive Tuesday in her apartment. @TelemundoNI pic.twitter.com/hhN1EzjjkF— Adriana Loya (@AdrianaLoyaTV) January 22, 2019
According to WCVB, a digital forensic expert said that more than 300 explicit photos and six videos of the victim on Peña’s phone.
Ambrose’s family filed a missing person report and using surveillance video, police was able to track Ambrose to Peña’s apartment: the two were seen on camera boarding public transportation and then heading toward the housing complex where Peña lived.
At his trial, Peña testified in his own defense. He told the jury that the three-day trial was consensual and that the victim had asked him for help and wanted to go to his apartment.